The surface elements of a kitchen range represent a serious fire hazard when operated by people having a tendency to forget or to be easily distracted. Furthermore, the cooking of food by people suffering from memory incapacitating illnesses such as the Alzheimer's disease is another serious hazard and an important cause of property damage and death by fire each year.
Several manufacturers of kitchen ranges have recognized the need for more safety with kitchen ranges, and have added timers to the circuitry of their appliances. Thanks be given to those manufacturers, several models of modem kitchen ranges are now available with timing devices for automatically shutting off any one of the surface elements after a preset cooking period.
Examples of timing devices incorporated in the control circuitry of the surface elements of kitchen ranges are disclosed in the following documents:
U.S. Pat. No. 1,758,619, issued on May 13, 1930 to R. M. G. Phillips;
U.S. Pat. No. 2,599,171, issued on Jun. 3, 1952 to H. F. Freeman;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,906, issued on Jun. 25, 1974 to Robert G. Goulds;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,556, issued on Sep. 6, 1988 to Alfred Meisner;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,693,245, issued on Dec. 2, 1997 to Kent Clizbe;
UK Patent Appl. 2,219,152, filed on Apr. 5, 1989 by Diehl GmbH & Co.
Although some modern kitchen ranges have timers to control the surface elements thereof, the timers used in these ranges are not adapted for retrofit installations on the basic models of kitchen ranges. A typical kitchen range may have a useful life of 30 years or more. Therefore, there is still and will be for a number of years, an immense quantity of appliances which do not have any timing device therein.
Also, the timers used in the modern kitchen ranges are not always as durable as the remaining portion of the appliances. When a timer fails, it is often the case that the owner of the range neglects to repair or replace the defective parts and continues to operate the range without this safety feature.
Therefore, it is believed that there is a significant market demand for a timing device which can be installed in kitchen ranges as a precautionary measure to control the operation of the surface elements, whether it is a modern range or an older durable type. It is believed that there is a large market demand for a retrofit timing device for installation in kitchen ranges if that timing device can be easily installed by a homeowner, landlord or a hospice attendant for examples without having to modify the wiring of the appliance.